ONNY kicks off 23rd concert season with "A Night at the Opera" Sept. 18

Wednesday, September 15, 2010 - 11:41 am

POTSDAM – The Orchestra of Northern New York will celebrate the premier of its 23rd concert season with “A Night at the Opera” on Saturday, Sept. 18, at 7:30 p.m. in Hosmer Hall, SUNY Potsdam.

The concert, under the direction of ONNY founder, music director and conductor Kenneth Andrews, will feature guest soloists from The Crane School of Music’s vocal artist/ faculty: Sopranos, Deborah Massell, Kathleen Miller, and Jill Pearon; Mezzo-Soprano Lorraine Yaros Sullivan; Tenor Lonel Woods; and Baritone David Pittman-Jennings. All artists will delight the audience with solo and ensemble selections by great composers for the operatic stage.

The orchestra will open the concert with the overture to Giuseppe Verdi’s La Forza del Destino, followed by an ensemble number from Beethoven’s Fidelio.

Soloists Yaros Sullivan and Miller will then present arias from Così fan tutte (Mozart) and Die Fledermaus (J. Strauss Jr.) respectively, followed by a double serving of George Bizet to conclude the first half: Woods and Pittman-Jennings will sing a spectacular duet from The Pearl Fishers followed by Orchestral Suites from Carmen.

The second half of the concert will open with Richard Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” and an aria from his opera Tannhäuser, sung by Pittman-Jennings. Selections from Dvořák’s Rusalka and Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann will feature Pearon, Miller and Yaros Sullivan, followed by Puccini arias from La Bohème and Tosca, sung by Massell and Woods.

After a brief Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana, all soloists will again take the stage with the full orchestra in a celebratory ensemble number, “Libiamo…” from Verdi’s La Traviata.

Immediately following the concert there will be a reception at Julian’s Restaurant, 38 Market St., Potsdam. The reception is open to the public and admission is free ($10 suggested donation).

Concert tickets are available in Potsdam at Northern Music & Video and the CPS Box Office at SUNY Potsdam, and in Canton at the St. Lawrence University’s Brewer Bookstore and the Pear Tree.

Ticket prices are $18 for adults, $16 for seniors, students $10, and children twelve and under are free.

Tickets are also available by phone at the orchestra office, 267-3251, or at www.onny.org.